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If I could install one amendment into the US Constitution, it would be that Congress will enact no law that exempts themselves or any other government official - and make it retroactive, nullifying all such pre-existing laws.

I don't know of the situation in the US, but in the UK it is illegal for an emergency service vehicle to go over the speed limit. However, there are prosecution guidelines advising the Prosecution Service not to pursue a prosecution.

In (certain areas of) the U.S., they are allowed to go above speed limit, and run stop signs and red lights - however, if anything goes wrong (accident or somesuch), they WILL be prosecuted, usually fairly harshly.
[Personal experience]

Well actually last time I asked a friend who was a EMT he said they hardly ever go above the speed limit anymore it just that people move out of the way and they can run the red lights and stuff that make them get there faster.

And thats where the first amendment comes in and the declaration of independence. This also makes government officials guilty of treason and by the laws of our country this give the people the right to revolution.

If I could install one amendment into the US Constitution, it would be that Congress will enact no law that exempts themselves or any other government official - and make it retroactive, nullifying all such pre-existing laws.

They probably would, but it's hard to say. Don't forget that Texas tried to remove the TSA from their state, and the FAA said they would declare the entire state a no-fly-zone if they did. I like to think it would be a popular move by anyone who did it.

I was really disappointed that Texas backed down on that. I was hoping they would call the FAA's bluff. Seriously, how much guff would the FAA get if they started taking whole sections of the US air transportation grid offline in the name of security theater?

Exactly my sentiments. Sounds like we need to start doing TSA style security for members of Congress and the Executive branch so they can experience first hand what they make the rest of us go through!!!!!

It is my firm belief that the people who sign and pass the laws should not be exempt from those very laws.

There is something fundamentally wrong on having a governing class with all sort of privileges.
It is not moral for them to bypass the obligatory airport groping, have a special health insurance plan, have retirement pensions after working for just a few years, etc, etc

There has been, over the past couple of generations, a gradual tendency for the Presidency to acquire power and the trappings of power to an almost Imperial extent. Certainly Presidential transportation is one of the most spectacular examples: having two of your own superbly and specially-equipped 747s is not going to make you humble. Air Force One has become a prime symbol of presidential power and prestige.

...

POTUS needs his wings clipped. We need to make sure that the President knows who the boss is – us. I have a bracing alternative strategy in mind, one that also shows the proper spirit of austerity.

First, ditch the 747s. Ground transportation was good enough for George Washington and it’s plenty good enough for lesser Presidents. I think that we should replace the big birds with a garbage truck: – armored, naturally, for security - the modern kind of garbage truck that automatically picks up a garbage can and dumps it.

Anytime you go reaching for that extra .001% of safety in one area, you are pissing money and time down the toilet. There is almost always another part of a system where that money could be used to increase safety by a much larger percentage.

I'd feel safer if they were still just running us through a metal detector and x-raying carry-on baggage in an effort to keep guns off planes and as a basic deterrent to smuggling and bringing explosives onboard.

Spend the rest of the TSA's budget on more plane inspections and screening the pilots for fatigue, alcohol, and drug use before they fly. I'm pretty sure the numbers clearly show that significantly more planes go down due to mechanical failure and pilot error than terrorism.

I don't know about sexual assault but just being on a plane irradiates you a lot more than any airport scan, it's a nice sentiment that the president should live like the rest of us but the truth is that you can't be the command and control nexus for an entire nation without some sort of retinue, specialized transportation and comfortable accommodations.

The bartender offered Obama a beer on the house but the president insisted on paying. It was a cheaper night than Monday, when a crowd in the Bud Tent at the Iowa State Fair chanted 'four more beers" and Obama had to oblige.

"A guy you would have a beer with" has been a metric of candidate likability for decades (centuries?).

Obama can go around, drink some brews, buy a few hundred dollars worth of microbrew equipment for the WH Chefs, and buy some beers for some dudes thoroughly sticking a thorn in Romney's unapproachable high class Mormon weakness without saying anything inflammatory or bigoted.

Obama made a quick stop in Knoxville at the Coffee Connection, a coffee shop on the town's square. About 20 people were seated at tables chatting and having morning coffee. Obama greeted them and stepped up to the counter to order a coffee, iced tea, and some muffins and cinnamon rolls.

Mormons don't drink coffee or tea either. Willard Mitt Romney, the uptight white dude you can have a beer with, or perhaps a coffee with.

Honey, that's not cheese, that's cheese analogue, which is not like cheese at all, except it's about the right colour and if you melt it over stuff it kind of doesn't necessarily taste like death anymore.

Fuck this. That shouldn't be a fucking "perk." Not a single fucking one of us should be subjected to the bullshit that the TSA pulls. The fact that Obama recognizes (even to a degree) that's a heaping pile of crap and does NOTHING about it, speaks volumes in my opinion.

Serious question - how? Is there a central organization that hosts general aviation flight bookings? Is there site you can go to to find a flight? Are there cheaper flights where a pilot is "going somewhere anyways" and they use passengers to reduce costs?

FAR Part 135 operators fly everything from single engine piston planes like Cirrus SR-22's to the largest airliners. TSA steps in and screens charter flights in aircraft above a certain size, but with most GA flights a passenger can literally step from his or her vehicle into an awaiting aircraft.

I think every member of Congress, President, Vice-President, every Cabinet Official and the Supreme Court should have to have a TSA full body cavity search before they can go to work every day and have the searches recorded and posted on the TSA website.

There's a program at many airports that allows you to pass a background check and keep your shoes and jacket on and keep your laptop in your bag. It will be available at 30 airports by the end of the year.

edit: It will actually be at 35 airports by the end of the year, and many in the military, elderly and children can be exempted. You can get a 5-year pass for $100 and you have to take an intake interview.

(OK, to be fair he wasn't active military, but still. Military people and old people can have crazy views like anyone else, and children can be used by parents. Why the exemptions? Treat everyone the same and let everyone have shoes and jackets.)

People in the military have already had background checks, which exempts them from having another one. If they've had negative psychological reviews from the military like Wade Page and the Ft. Hood bomber did, then they'll probably get denied a pass. But there's no need to do another background check when the military already has their profile available.

The idea that we should treat everyone the same is preposterous. Strip searching an old lady is just as stupid as not searching a guy with an Iraqi passport.

You're missing my point with the military, I would say that having a military background makes you capable of more violence than other people.

....but go the other way with it then. There are thousands of people that can easily pass a background check that could easily be tapped to be a suicide bomber or whatever. Why are we making it easier for those people to get through security easier? These security precautions are a joke.

From a member of the military who has undergone an intense background check, I would like to get through airport security quickly. In uniform, I have to take my top and boots off, and the whole time I'm thinking, if I actually wanted to harm the nation, I would just go on wikileaks/reddit and post what I know. Shit would be more damaging longterm than me blowing up a plane.

Clear was a private company that never raised enough capital to get in more than 4 airports. Pre Check is a TSA initiated program that will be in 35 airports this year and more next year. So yes, it will be different.

This worries me. If you're going to have a process to supposedly protect people then have it for everyone. No one thought the Aurora, CO shooter was crazy until he shot up the theaters. And 5 years is way too long. If anything have it on a yearly basis, if at all.

Or we could just ditch the TSA altogether and go back to how security was before 9/11, except we keep the fortified cockpit doors and the rule that allows pilots to carry guns (because those are the only two things we've added since that actually increase security).

I must be one of those rare people who doesn't feel inconvenienced by the TSA because I don't dress like a moron when I fly, nor decide to be as bitchy as possible to the underpaid security people who are just trying to follow the rules set for them.

You'd be amazed how fast security is in several airports up and down the east coast when you minimize potential problems.

That liquid ban pisses me off. What? Excuse me TSA agent, why are you telling me that I can't bring a 1.2 ounce bottle of lotion on the plane? I can only 1 ounce? But I flew here with it! I had 1.2 ounces on the plane from New York to Dallas, but from Dallas to New York I can only have 1 ounce? Can I squirt .2 ounces of this twenty dollar lotion into the trash? NO? WHA? Why not? Why are you safer with 1 ounce than you are with 1.2? DICKS!

Suckers....you loves Obama, you loves Obama sooo much, you let him inspect your anus with the TSA, torture your family with the Patriot Act (he signed), murder you at will, and tax you to death with you are ready to retire....

Edit: This is an opinion that adds to the discussion, so it has been downvoted because someone disagrees with it. Conservatives, you are constantly whining that this happens to you in r/politics, so why do it yourselves? Civility goes two ways.

It wasn't so much of a complaint as a pointing out that, though there is a constant whine about "conservatives" being downvoted for opinions, and "conservative voices" being drowned out by downvotes, that's not accurate.

You cannot both complain something is unfair, and then make use of it when it suits you (I'm not saying "you" specifically, I'm speaking generally). One or the other.

I knew it! This is all part of a massive conspiracy. Find a couple where the woman is a white American and the man is from Kenya. Force them to have a baby in Kenya, but make sure that the birth announcement and documentation is in Hawaii. Raise the kid as a socialist communist terrorist America hater by making him pal around with terrorists. Give him a Harvard education so he could get into politics. Commit massive voter fraud by making dead people show up at the polls so he can be elected president. That’s when they can finally have someone ride a plane without taking off his shoes. They have Obama put explosives in his shoes and that’s how he hijacks Air Force One and takes revenge on the the US. It’s almost too perfect of a plan. But they didn’t count on someone asking him what his favorite presidential perk was. Now he’s been found out. Whew. Dodged a bullet. Rush was right all along…

It literally does exactly the opposite. He's saying that he knows what a pain security check points are, he's someone who's lived with them -- and not private planes -- his whole career, and now he's enjoying that benefit, as most normal people would.

See when I read that, I thought wow, he could have said eating kobe beef at any restaurant he wanted without reservations or vacationing anywhere in the world. He could have said having a private plane, or being able to get tickets to any Broadway show, any entertainment show, watch the super bowl from whatever fucking seat he wanted- even the good year blimp. He could have said he likes having his kids have security or that he will get to retire early and just give an occasional speech and build his library but still get security and a government pay out. He could have made any number of remarks that really cast him as an arrogant asshole who likes "being able to fire people".
But he said the best perk is not having to slip off his shoes. He is talking about something he doesn't have to do, rather than some excessive benefit that he gets just because: president.